The present invention relates to a technology effective in an application to an item print (such as, e.g., an address print etc) of printing items on a single label sheet on which a plurality of seals are laid out in lines.
In recent years, a personal computer generally performs an address print such as a post card, a sealed letter and a label sheet etc.
Incidentally, in a printing apparatus (a printer) of this type of personal computer, the label sheet has an area in which the printing is unable to effect (which will hereinafter be referred to as an unprintable area) in terms of a relationship between paper feed control and drive control of a printing head.
This unprintable area is, to be specific, though different depending on specifications of the printers, a marginal area extending several mm xcx9c2 cm from a side edge of the label sheet, which is used by a paper feed mechanism (a roller) to draw in the sheet and discharge the sheet.
Therefore, if many pieces of information such as, e.g., a post-code, an address, a name and a customer code etc are laid out in one single cell, the cell, if existing at a marginal area of the label sheet, comes to have an unclear print because of a limit by the area unprintable by the printing apparatus.
Namely, when printing the information set in the cell extending to within the marginal area of the label sheet, a print position of the information might encroach on the unprintable area, with the result that there occurs such a phenomenon that the information can not be printed, or contents thereof (characters and images) are printed in discontinuity.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 2-277676, 5-244398 and 6-64233 disclose technologies of performing the print by reducing the whole data so that the data are well printed in an area and a label on the basis of a label dimension and information on the area printable by the printer.
Those technologies disclosed therein are also capable of printing the data within the printable area (excluding the unprintable area) determined by the specification of the printer, however, the set-by-user information such as a set character font size etc is changed and does not reflect in a result of the print. Further, the whole data undergo the reducing process, and hence there arises a problem that the data, which should not (is not desired to) be reduced, might be reduced.
It is a primary object of the present invention, which was devised to obviate the above problems, to provide a technology capable of printing without being influenced by an area unprintable by a printing apparatus while making set information reflected in the print, and in particular a technology effective in printing on a label sheet including a plurality of seals (cells).
To accomplish the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a print controlling apparatus comprises a unit for obtaining an unprintable area on a print medium, a unit for judging whether or not data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area, and a unit for controlling, when judging that the data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area, the print of a fragment of data which extends to within the unprintable area.
The unit for controlling the print of the fragment of data may compensate a print position of the fragment of data. The unit for controlling the print of the fragment of data may determine such a movement quantity that the fragment of data does not extend to within the unprintable area, and shift the print position of the fragment of data in accordance with the movement quantity. Further, the unit for controlling the print of the fragment of data may determine such a reduction rate that the fragment of data does not extend to within the unprintable area, and reduce the fragment of data in accordance with the reduction rate.
According to the first aspect of the invention, the data to be printed may be data allocated to each item of a cell composed of a combination of a plurality of items, and the fragment of data may be data allocated to each item.
Thus, only the fragment of data is set as an object for the control of the reduction and movement, and hence a well-laid-out print can be attained while making attributes (a size of a character font etc) of the original data reflected therein.
In the print control, data that should not be reduced (the size should ne be changed) as in the case of a bar code may be excluded from the object for control.
In this case, the unit for controlling the print of the fragment of data may determine such a movement quantity that each item of the cell does not extend to within the unprintable area, and shift a print position of the item in accordance with the movement quantity. Moreover, the unit for controlling the print of the fragment of data may determine such a reduction rate that each item of the cell does not extend to within the unprintable area, and reduce the item in accordance with the reduction rate. Further, in this case, the print controlling apparatus may further comprise a unit for storing a control flag showing whether or not a shift print is allowed per item, and the unit for controlling the print of the fragment of data may shift each item on the basis of the control flag. The print controlling apparatus may further comprise a unit for storing a control flag showing whether or not a reduction print is allowed per item, and the unit for controlling the print of the fragment of data may reduce each item on the basis of the control flag.
On the other hand, the judging unit may judge, based on layout position information of cell items on the print medium, whether or not the data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area.
The data allocated to the cell item may contain a state flag showing whether to extend to within the unprintable area or not, and the judging unit may judge based on the state flag whether or not the data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area.
The unit for obtaining the unprintable area may obtain the unprintable area on the print medium corresponding to a printing apparatus for use.
The print controlling apparatus may further comprise a unit for setting the unprintable area by a user, and the unit for obtaining the unprintable area may obtain the unprintable area set by the user.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a print controlling method comprises a step of obtaining an unprintable area on a print medium, a step of judging whether or not data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area, and a step of controlling, when judging that the data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area, the print of a fragment of data which extends to within the unprintable area.
In this print controlling method, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a movement quantity that the fragment of data does not extend to within the unprintable area, and shifting the print position of the fragment of data in accordance with the movement quantity.
Further, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a reduction rate that the fragment of data does not extend to within the unprintable area, and reducing the fragment of data in accordance with the reduction rate. Herein, the data to be printed may be data allocated to each item of a cell composed of a combination of a plurality of items, and the fragment of data may be data allocated to each item. In this case, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a movement quantity that each item of the cell does not extend to within the unprintable area, and shifting a print position of the item in accordance with the movement quantity.
Moreover, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a reduction rate that each item of the cell does not extend to within the unprintable area, and reducing the item in accordance with the reduction rate.
Furthermore, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve moving each item on the basis of the control flag showing whether or not a shift print is allowed per item.
Still further, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve reducing each item on the basis of the control flag showing whether or not a reduction print is allowed per item.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium, readable by a computer, recorded with a program for making the computer execute a step of obtaining an unprintable area on a print medium, a step of judging whether or not data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area, and a step of controlling, when judging that the data to be printed is printed in the unprintable area, the print of a fragment of data which extends to within the unprintable area. The recording medium is a medium on which the program can be magnetically optically recorded, and embraces a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk and magneto-optic disk etc.
Herein, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a movement quantity that the fragment of data does not extend to within the unprintable area, and shifting the print position of the fragment of data in accordance with the movement quantity, whereby the program can be recorded in an execution program format. Further, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a reduction rate that the fragment of data does not extend to within the unprintable area, and reducing the fragment of data in accordance with the reduction rate, whereby the program can be recorded in the execution program format.
Furthermore, the data to be printed may be data allocated to each item of a cell composed of a combination of a plurality of items, and the fragment of data may be data allocated to each item. In this case, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a movement quantity that each item of the cell does not extend to within the unprintable area, and shifting a print position of the item in accordance with the movement quantity, whereby the program can be recorded in the execution program format. Moreover, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve determining such a reduction rate that each item of the cell does not extend to within the unprintable area, and reducing the item in accordance with the reduction rate, whereby the program can be recorded in the execution program format.
Still further, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve moving each item on the basis of the control flag showing whether or not a shift print is allowed per item, whereby the program can be recorded in the execution program format.
Yet further, the step of controlling the print of the fragment of data may involve reducing each item on the basis of the control flag showing whether or not a reduction print is allowed per item, whereby the program can be recorded in the execution program format.